Association to Promote Animal Smoking

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Where the sun meets the sky.  A story of tragedy, heartbreak,  and animal smoking.
Annie Norton
Silver Spring, MD.

It was a nice spring day, and I was driving in a rental car from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon with my girlfriend from work.  Our organization has a booth at a large international trade show in Las Vegas for the weekend.  My friend and I figured it would be a cool thing to rent a car and make the 5-6 hour drive out to the Grand Canyon...since neither of us had seen it before.

So, we were driving along looking out at the beautiful western sky.  My friend, Cheryl, began talking about how cramped you feel in the East, when you get out here and see a western sunset for the first time.  I agreed with Cheryl, although I'm pretty sure she was liquored up at that point.  For some reason, when Cheryl got to Vegas...she felt like she had to mimic Nicolas Cage and be drunk on a constant basis.  This is kind of funny, because I rarely see Cheryl drink when we're back home in DC.  I kept asking her, what the fuck is the matter with you.  Leaving Las Vegas was a movie...a good movie...but I don't understand why you feel the need to pretend like the reason you came to Vegas was to drink yourself to death.

She's kind of a freak.  Anyway, we finally arrive at the Grand Canyon after all morning of driving.  We pay the money and proceed to drive into the national park.  At one of the little view stops along the way, we decided to get out and have a look around.  The sun was shining very brightly, and there were also three other cars stopped here to get a view.  Cheryl and I walked to the edge and looked on with amazement about how huge and wonderful the canyon was.  Cheryl just reeked of cheap vodka and cigarettes as we walked around some people to get a better view.

Cheryl lit up a cigarette, and walked over to the edge to have a good look down.  She called my name, and showed me how this little rock that was down about five feet past the railing.  And then five feet past that...was the edge of the canyon. Cheryl kept saying about how this rock looked exactly like a little monkey holding and smoking a cigar.  I chalked this up to bright sun and vodka-induced hallucinations, as I pretended to care about the stupid little rock.

Before I could do anything, Cheryl climbed up over the railing and headed down to get the rock.  I heard her say, that she wanted a true Western souvenir from the grand canyon.  I hurried over to the railing as Cheryl slowly scraped her feet down to where the rock lay.  I yelled that she was crazy, and that she should come back up here.  Just then, I saw her turn around to look at me ...when she started to slip down the slope a little.  She began yelling and I began screaming at her to hold on.  

The strangest thing that I have ever seen began to unfold in slow motion time.  As she was slipping, her cigarette came into contact with her hair spray-filled Jersey hair.  Cheryl was from NJ, and she always seemed to look like she had come right out of a mall and onto the turnpike.  I was amazed to see that Cheryl's entire head  had become an orange and blue fireball from the hair spray.  Cheryl jumped back up and was now getting perilously close to the edge of the Grand Canyon.  She was screaming and waving her hands up in the air.  It all happened too fast as Cheryl began to fall backward and almost into the canyon.

I remember the look in her eyes as she quickly looked at me and screamed out, "Annie!!!! I've always looooooooooooooooved youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"  The rest of Cheryl's body then began catching fire.  This is probably due to the vodka and champagne bath we had together last night.  And maybe the four bottles of tequila Cheryl kept in her pocket at all times had a little to do with it.  Cheryl was then gone in a flash.  I move along the railing to get a better view...and all I could see was this exploding ball of fire tumbling down into the Grand Canyon.  It was all very surreal.  I just stood there in shock and amazement.      

Cheryl was a very good friend of mine...and it's been five years since it happened.  I happen to see the APAS web site about smoking animals, and it reminded me of Cheryl.  I'll never forget that day of heartbreak...and that little smoking monkey rock she wanted so badly.  I have that rock now...sitting on my fireplace mantle for the whole world to see.